Chronicles of the Mad Demon - Chapter 184
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 184. Two Principles , and Two Intentions (4)
The times had changed.
It was a phrase that meant truly many things.
Moyong Bi, who had been quietly watching Heo Do Jin In, turned his head. It was the direction where Heo Joong Jin In, Neung Hyeong, and Ja Dam had disappeared.
“That child Ja Dam has grown up well.”
“If the Alliance Leader sees her that way, she must have succeeded in her own way.”
“Though she lacks experience, I got the impression that she’s a child ready to stand upright on her own at any time.”
Regret appeared on Heo Do Jin In’s face.
“I absolutely didn’t want to raise my disciple within the mistakes of the past. Whenever I had strength, I took my disciple and traveled to various mountains. We hunted and I had her spar with Taoist Priests I knew.”
“That wouldn’t have been the important part.”
“….”
“You didn’t send her to your relatives who are currently classified as radicals either?”
“That’s right.”
Heo Do Jin In sighed.
“That child Ja Dam must have had a very difficult time. She wouldn’t have known why her elder brothers hated her so much, and because she didn’t know, she would have worried even more about how to conduct herself.”
“If she were a young child who knew nothing, it would be like throwing her into an excessively harsh battlefield, but that child is fine. She knows how to pursue righteousness.”
“Though I taught what I could teach, in reality that child is outstanding, not that I taught her well.”
Moyong Bi absolutely didn’t think so.
Ja Dam was certainly an outstanding vessel for the Tao. Perhaps she was even a greater vessel than Heo Do Jin In himself.
But even great talent will stagnate and rot without someone to recognize it and open the path.
Heo Do Jin In understood the problems of the Mu Dang Taoist Priests and actively cultivated his disciple.
Moyong Bi knew Heo Do Jin In’s character well.
Sometimes strict, sometimes even angry, but he would have treated his disciple with love at every moment.
Knowing this, Ja Dam too would respect her master more than anyone while following him like a parent. Moyong Bi could glimpse the strong trust and affection for her master in Ja Dam’s voice and in her eyes.
Moyong Bi nodded and spoke in a voice that was even leisurely.
“I understand everything, but there are things I don’t know.”
“…?”
“I don’t know exactly why the radical fellows dislike that child Ja Dam.”
“….”
“Of course, I have my guesses. Because of those guesses, I was able to not be disappointed in my old comrade. Fortunately, hearing those circumstances, I learned how dark and painful your life has been.”
“Even so.”
Tears that he thought he had completely shed began to well up again.
Heo Do Jin In held back his tears with a deep breath and said.
“The Alliance Leader’s sense of futility upon returning to see the collapsed family cannot disappear.”
“….”
“I truly have no face to show the Alliance Leader.”
“I understand.”
“I don’t know if you’re aware, but the children called radicals who currently lead Mu Dang are the ones who didn’t participate in the war with Sacred Blood Palace at that time.”
That’s right.
That was exactly where the problem began.
“I wanted to deploy all disciples with strength, but if I had done that, the sect couldn’t have been preserved. I had to create at least minimal self-preservation measures.”
“Of course you had to. Who wouldn’t fear the history of their family being cut off?”
“The children I left behind like that are those children. Those children didn’t experience war. Though they shared the same era, they couldn’t understand the elder brothers, uncles and masters, and furthermore the relatives who had been stained with demonic energy due to war.”
“….”
“Lack of understanding only causes discord. Those fellows too initially tried to understand the Taoist Priests who had served in the military, but they couldn’t shake off deeper desires.”
“Get out, is that it.”
“That’s right. In those fellows’ eyes, we were not Taoist Priests but merely blood-soaked demons.”
They couldn’t not know what the uncles and masters, elder brothers, and relatives had drawn their swords for.
But what one knows and what one feels in their heart don’t always align. That was true for everyone in the world.
“Perhaps because of us, the shadow of demonic energy was cast over those children too. There were actually many military Taoist Priests who tormented those children.”
“That cannot be an excuse for the evil acts of those radical bastards.”
“I know. It’s just that our fault in not setting everything right in time is no less than those fellows’.”
He could have made excuses saying he didn’t have the ability.
But Heo Do Jin In wasn’t that kind of person. Whether he had ability or not, if the result was like this, he thought everything was his fault.
Moyong Bi understood why Heo Joong Jin In had said he couldn’t bear the sins of his relatives.
Of course, even now he had no intention whatsoever of allowing that.
“I understand the circumstances of the Mu Dang Faction. How hellish a life you and the Heo generation Taoist Priests have lived.”
He would have been devoted to returning the relatives and even younger disciples to normal.
Furthermore, Heo Do Jin In had to care for his fellow disciples too. Though his fellow disciples’ cultivation was deep, precisely because it was deep, the demonic energy that had taken root once didn’t disappear easily.
This was the result.
Heo Do Jin In had lost most of his internal energy and even contracted an illness.
“Now will you tell me what I want to know?”
Though it was a polite request, Heo Do Jin In knew. If one didn’t properly understand the courtesy of a polite person, they could summon lightning and waves.
Because he knew Moyong Bi well, Heo Do Jin In could tell how angry he was.
The Alliance Leader was always cheerful and had simple aspects unbecoming of a person at the pinnacle of the martial world. Because he didn’t enjoy courtesy or formalities, they could become even closer.
When such a person observed courtesy, everyone had to be tense.
Just as good people become scary when they get angry, no one was unaware that the moment he cast aside courtesy, a storm would blow in.
And right now there was no one to share that burden.
Heo Do Jin In naturally thought he had to bear it alone.
“Before the story, I will clearly confess just this one thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“Then and now, from an extremely cold perspective, I am certain the Alliance Leader is not of the Ho Yeon Clan.”
“Nothing could be more true.”
“But I cannot guarantee that what the Ho Yeon Clan members claim is groundless falsehood.”
Though it was shocking words, Moyong Bi understood him.
If even his old comrade Heo Do Jin In was uncertain, the entire martial world would have listened to their claims.
It was an all too natural fact.
“That part is fine, so let me hear from after that.”
Moyong Bi’s eyes gleamed.
“Helping Dae Ho and his family settle in Hubei, that was thanks to you, wasn’t it?”
“No.”
“No?”
“To be precise, Heo Joong and I, who were somewhat sane, as well as all the current radical relatives tried to protect the Alliance Leader’s family.”
Moyong Bi was greatly surprised.
“The radical bastards did that too?”
“That’s right.”
“What on earth…?”
“Heo Joong and I naturally said the Moyong Clan should be protected. If the Moyong Clan members had truly committed crimes, it would be proper to clarify the facts and punish them, but it made no sense for innocent children to inherit those crimes too.”
Having experienced the devastation of war, he would have thought so even more.
Heo Do Jin In was that kind of person.
His perspective was different from the countless people who thoughtlessly chattered about the martial world, inheriting parents’ sins, and such being natural.
That’s why they were the righteous faction.
The righteous faction was part of the martial world, but the martial world was not the righteous faction. But there were many fools who mistook this.
“I can understand the others, but why did the radical bastards agree to that? Were they overwhelmed by the authority of the Heo generation elders?”
“I don’t know if there was such authority, but at that time I too had exhausted my energy and lost more than half my internal energy, and Heo Joong wasn’t normal either.”
“Then why?”
After being silent for a moment, Heo Do Jin In soon let out a sigh.
“I hope you’ll listen without misunderstanding.”
“Stop dragging it out and speak.”
“The successive sect leaders of Wudang have known that the Moyong Noble Family possesses… a peerless martial art that Wudang Sect lost in the past.”
Moyong Bi was startled.
“You’re saying we have Wudang Sect’s martial arts?”
“That’s right.”
“What do you mean? We’ve never…”
“It was from the generation before the Alliance Leader. It happened just before the Moyong Noble Family collapsed due to treason.”
“…?!”
“Of course, that martial art is great and mysterious. However, Wudang Sect is still Wudang Sect even without that martial art. Therefore, the successive sect leaders didn’t regret the martial art that had already disappeared.”
“That…”
“But it seems the current sect leader, Jo Geom, didn’t think so.”
Heo Do Jin In sighed.
“Those fellows were tainted by demons before they could awaken to true Wudang martial arts. My elder brothers and relatives who joined the military at least found a path to the ultimate in martial prowess, but those fellows couldn’t. The people who could have guided them had gone to the battlefield.”
“…!”
“Still, Jo Geom is fine. He has talent and made efforts himself. But Wudang’s power weakened, and he tried to find a breakthrough in the lost Wudang supreme arts that the Moyong Noble Family might possess.”
It was an unbelievable story.
‘Could he mean the Three Pure Formula?’
Moyong Bi, who had been thinking of the Infinite True Qi, soon shook his head.
‘That can’t be. If the Three Pure Formula had been Wudang’s martial art, Heo Do would have told me long ago.’
Of course.
If he had learned martial arts from the same sect, that would mean they were fellow disciples. There’s no way Heo Do Jin In wouldn’t have mentioned that.
And one more thing.
‘The Three Pure Formula has a different essence from Wudang martial arts.’
The Three Pure Infinite True Formula is a martial art that discusses the pinnacle of Taoist schools.
Of course, any martial art would become the world’s greatest divine art if it reached its peak, but when looking at the simple level of martial studies, it was hard to find Taoist martial arts that surpassed the Three Pure Formula.
On the other hand, Wudang martial arts focused on the principles of Yin and Yang, and based on Taoist philosophy that expanded to the Four Symbols and Eight Trigrams, ultimately created a flow of divine arts that returned to Taiji.
If the Three Pure Formula was difficult because it encompassed everything, then Wudang martial arts sought to advance toward the ultimate in a somewhat more moderate way—to put it simply, they had built their martial arts in a format closer to a solution manual.
‘But…’
Moyong Bi’s expression changed moment by moment.
‘Then what exactly is Wudang’s martial art?’
Suddenly, Moyong Bi’s eyes sparkled.
“Do you mean Primordial Dance?”
Primordial Dance was a martial art of universal principles that also incorporated the principles of Wudang Taiji.
Indeed, the swordsmanship of Primordial Formless had aspects similar to Wudang Sect’s martial arts.
Of course, there was no evidence that it was Wudang Sect’s martial art. In fact, martial arts that walked similar paths to Wudang Sect’s sword studies were scattered throughout the world.
However, if one had to find something of Wudang’s among the Moyong Noble Family’s martial arts, he thought it could only be Primordial Dance.
Heo Do Jin In shook his head.
“No.”
“If it’s not Primordial Dance… surely it’s not True Dragon Dance.”
“Of course not.”
“Heo Do Jin In. Does Wudang Sect’s martial art really exist in our main family?”
“Yes. That much is certain. The sole inheritor of ‘that martial art’ at the time ascended to immortality at the Moyong Noble Family.”
“Then wouldn’t he have left his martial art behind before dying? No matter how sole an inheritor, to give that to an outsider…”
“It was that important a martial art to our main sect. Though I don’t care much about it now, at the time, that martial art’s status was comparable to the ultimate principle of Wudang Taiji Sword.”
The ultimate principle of Taiji Sword meant Taiji Wisdom Sword.
“Furthermore, the inheritor of that martial art at the time shared a deep friendship with someone from the Moyong Family. He must have been a trustworthy person.”
“…”
“Of course, even after becoming sect leader and learning the secret history, I thought the lineage of that martial art had been severed.”
Heo Do Jin In looked steadily at Moyong Bi.
“Until I saw the Alliance Leader.”
“You’re saying I learned Wudang Sect’s martial art?”
“That’s right.”
“But my Three Pure Formula and Forbidden Demon Formula are…”
“…”
“…!!”
Moyong Bi’s face turned pale.
Bitterness appeared on Heo Do Jin In’s face.
“The reason the Alliance Leader suffered from madness was because you learned our main sect’s Dual Polarity Divine Art in a corrupted form.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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